1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing of digital data. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems for data conversion of the visual representation for images and videos.
2. Background Art
Customizable avatars representing users in games and entertainment have become a common and desirable feature among users. Users often spend countless hours customizing and interacting with their avatars, which often become an extension of their individual expression. Thus, users may find themselves wanting to display and share their avatars in as many places as possible, by themselves and socially with others. With the proliferation of portable computing devices and the growth of electronic commerce, various services and goods can be developed to satisfy the needs of users wanting to spend more quality time with their beloved avatars.
However, these customizable avatars are often rendered by complex avatar systems that may be difficult or impossible for certain environments to support, particularly legacy application systems and low power thin client devices with limited computing resources. Three-dimensional multi-layered avatars might be easily supported by modern personal computers, but less powerful configurations such as mobile phones or web-based applications may provide an insufficiently powerful rendering environment. Even in the context of a sufficiently capable environment, an alternative data representation of the avatar might be preferable to the raw rendering data. Providing custom multi-platform rendering code to meet specific requirements may provide a solution, but it may quickly become an expensive development proposition due to varying hardware architectures and operating systems. Additionally, should the avatar system change and evolve over time as many avatar systems do, code maintenance to implement those changes may become an intractable mess.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a way to render avatars in a desired manner across multiple environments without requiring undue development costs and maintenance.